Monday, January 30, 2012

Did your weekend go well? The sun is finally shining here in southwest Missouri, and that always makes for a good weekend. I was working at my booth space, filling in with goodies and I finally remembered to bring my camera.

Valentine's Day is right around the corner so I did a little display for the ever popular occasion.

I included my collage hearts that I originally made for Etsy, but decided to take them offline and see how they would do at the booth. I'm still not sure how handmade does in my area, it's kind of hit or miss. I think that most people {in my area} are of the mindset that if it's handmade it's low in quality, but I know how much time and effort I put into each piece I make, and it's far from second rate. Anyway, I like mixing handmade with my vintage things, so we'll see how it goes.

I moved some of the furniture around (that I could by myself) and moved my green and white dresser into a new spot. I still love this piece and it's waiting for a special person. Don't you like that brass lamp? I have a pair of them, they almost didn't make it to the booth! :) I found hem shade-less and put a cream shade on them, but I might change them to black shades, that would look even better.

I've got a little bit of spring and more coming soon too.

You probably remember the blue dresser that sold last month and I replaced it with this BEAUTIFUL walnut buffet. Of course I miss that blue up against the trellis wall, but I think it's working ok, though I need some color up there now!

My music sheet wreath is still hanging, either no one 'gets' it or I've got it priced too high.

I'll be improving and rearranging even more and I'll be sure to share it with you.

P.S. If you see any of the littles you might like, don't hesitate to holler at me, I don't mind shipping.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Even after re-doing everything in the laundry room, I still ended up with a blank wall. With all the budget used up, I decided to make something with things I had around the house. You'll need two 12x12 canvases, clothes pins, and get your hot glue gun fired up too.

I also had the old fashion type of clothespin and craftpins too. Justin's grandma was editing some of her craft supplies and naturally they came to me, so I had these in my stash (she use to make those little angels with the crochet dresses with these).

I thought I'd do a circle and a square, although I think that the circle ended up looking like a sunflower. I left the canvas (it came pre-primed) and the clothespins natural. Alternating the craft pins, clothespins and adding in some new ones too, just run a line of glue on the back and eyeball it.I did find center, and used one of the 'stands' that the craftpins come with for the center

I had some lattice pieces out in the garage left over from the the Chain Link Dresser, so I added a couple of strips to the sides, not all four though (I didn't have quite enough ;).

The square one is made with all new clothespins and I just alternated the pattern.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Hi everyone! I'm finally done putting together a step-by-step on how Justin and I accomplished the herringbone tile in our my new laundry room. Yes, we took on a tile project!! Even though the room is TINY it really took both of us working as a team to get it done, I really could not have done it with out him! For the record, we are not professional tilers, but because the laundry room is so small, I thought it would be a good room to get our feet wet on DIY tiling. We are just a couple of people that want to save some dough and do it our self. Of course, I just couldn't be normal and lay the tile in a simple straightforward pattern, no, I had to want an intricate pattern like herringbone. Probably not the best pattern for beginners, but that's what I wanted and so we gave it a try.

*NOTE*Just so we are clear, because the room is so small (5X5), I chose to use a combination adhesive and grout, but if your space is large, it would certainly be more economical if you bought the unmixed grout and adhesive and then mix it yourself.

Just so you can remember where the floor began...linoleum with a couple spots of damage, original to the house.

I removed the baseboards and ripped the flooring out and scrapped up all the adhesive spots that remained. Cleaned, swept, and vacuumed the floor.

Because we installed on subfloor (raw wood), I painted it with a primer and sealer combo. This is so there would be no chance of the subfloor absorbing the moisture from the tile adhesive and swelling, thus avoiding possible cracks in the future.

I bought the ceramic tile at Lowe's from Interceramic. The color/pattern is called Marfil Chiaro which is a marble look alike. I chose this tile because it is smooth, and has the look of marble, not rough stone like some of the ceramic tile out there. They come in a box of 15 and are 13X13 square.

I used the tile cutter to cut enough tiles in half to complete the whole floor. Justin handled the outside cuts and cuts around the vents. I totally wimped out on those!

We started from the back of the room which is a little different. If you were laying tile straight, the center of the room is where to start, keeping the cuts on the outside, but in this case, everything is cut. It was easier to keep straight starting from the back and working to the front.

After we had gotten a good dry fit, everything was cut right, fit well and looked good.....I went back and put the adhesive on one by one.

I know, not the traditional way, with this intricate of a pattern, it is how it worked out. There was no way in hades, after making all those pieces fit like a puzzle, was I going to take them all up to lay the adhesive down....It had to be done this way. One painstaking tile after another. You see why it took me so long!

Begin by getting some adhesive/grout on the back of the tile with a putty knife:

'Butter' the back of the tile until it is completely covered:

With the notched trowel, scrape it across the back of the tile:

Lay the tile back into place, give it a little shimmy, and insert spacers. Basically it's the traditional way but in reverse. I can't tell you how badly my fingers and hands hurt from doing it!!

Once the adhesive is dry (recommended 24 hours), remove the spacers

*NOTE* Thankfully, the spacers come two sided...one side is if the tile were laid straight (the 'X' side) and then the other side was straight for this sort of pattern

Next, it's time to grout. This went a lot easier than I thought. I worked a small section at a time, putting a glob of grout down and using the rubber float to work it in between the tiles. Once I had a section done, I used the wet sponge to wipe the tiles down and get up the excess grout. When the entire floor is complete, and after another 24 hour dry time, apply another coat of grout. Because of so much shrinkage with drying, it looks better with another layer. Oh, and another 24 hours.....:) Once the second coat of grout is dry, apply the grout sealer (according to the directions).It's time to reinstall the baseboards....

....and move the appliances back in!

We are beyond thrilled with how it turned out, as you can imagine.

Wanna know what the sad part is????

That half of it is under the washer and dryer!! :)

At any rate, we are glad we took on the tile!By the way, there is a 'haze that forms over the tile, after grouting...and you can purchase Haze Remover, but I found with a warm water and a little elbow grease, it came right off.

If you have any questions, or if I wasn't clear on a step, feel free to ask in the comments.*Note* Some great advice from a reader and experienced tiler in the comments, be sure to read!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Hi everyone! I am back from St. Louis, doctor appointments out of the way, I did some picking for my booth space and spent my Homegoods gift cards. An all around productive trip. My MIL always goes with me, so we have a lot of fun on our little trips. Just in case you don't remember, I won Kate's Tablescape contest back in December. I won $100 to spend at Homegoods. Well, I've been holding on to those puppies for a while and finally spent them up on this trip.

My MIL took all these pictures for me, and believe me the employees thought we were a little crazy. Finally, one of them asked what the heck we were doing, so I had to explain how I won, and now we are here, and how I wanted to blog about it....blah blah blah....don't they understand I just couldn't spend up the gift cards and not BLOG about it! Blank stares, then "Oh".

I purposely waited for my trip to St. Louis because it's a ginormous city, which means the stores are stocked really well. Big city=More selection. Of course, as I am looking through these pictures, you can see the colors that I'm drawn too...I'm even wearing the colors I like, I didn't even realize it. (aqua, grey, orange....etc). I liked a lot of items in the store, and I could have spent more than the gift cards (that's why they do those sorts of things after all) but I had to save my real money for picking.

This dining chair caught my eye and I liked the chrome swing arm lamp too..good job pairing modern and traditional!

Of course I couldn't go to Homegoods with out going through the extensive dinnerware section, I really like this navy and white ikat-ish dinner plate and salad plate. I was thisclose to buying those, but they didn't have a setting for six, which I wanted.

Aisle after aisle of lamps, I'm surprised I didn't select one or two of them.

I like these euro sized pillows, the fabric reminded me of the Thomas Paul fabric.

I ultimately ended up with this ginormous urn and it's smaller brother. I envision them on my mantle for sure.

Artwork is another strong area for Homegoods, the current trend of canvas art, present and accounted for...I liked what that smaller one in front says....if you fail to prepare, then you prepare to fail. How true is that?? One of you graphic artist need to make a printable of that saying so I can pin it. :)

Other artwork I liked, I love poppies.

More pillows, the orange caught my eye.

Yes, I am this goofy, you can't take me anywhere.

I really like this orchid pot too, on top of the list, but didn't make the cut.

They also had great rugs, and huge too. Prices for the 9X12's a mere $300.00, not bad at all.

Great colorways, great starts for any room.

These little wire occasional tables were really cute, and in several colors.

So I came home with some great new accessories, and oh yeah, a cutting board (I needed a new one). I'm really grateful for being chosen as the winner, I had a great time shopping!

Thanks for all the comments on my laundry room, I was offline until today so I'm just now getting to your emails and questions. Thanks for your support!